Sermon for 5 Pentecost by Susan N. Eaves, June 27, 2010

"Freedom" writes Paul to the Galatians. It's a word we really like. Freedom - a sweet tasting word for anyone but especially to an American. We are, are we not, the "land of the free and the home of the brave" are we not, and proud of it?

Paul uses the word freedom three times in barely a paragraph. "For freedom Christ has set us free."  "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters." And "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence."

Sounds good doesn't it? So why doesn't is always feel good? Why is it that the freedom we long for gets to feel either like a prison or an impossibility? Why is it that the very thing we crave seems so often to become distorted and broken - the very opposite of what we set out to achieve?

Many terrible things occur and have been done and are being done in the name of freedom.  Often the freedom of one person or group is bought at the price of another. Freedom to use as much gas as we want leads to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Prohibition on oil drilling deprives communities of work. The struggle to protect America from terrorists preserves some sense of our freedom. Soldiers fighting for that freedom pay with the loss of theirs. Freedom to grow our economy in ways that are most profitable provides employment and prosperity. That same freedom has damaged our environment and perhaps even our capacity to guarantee the availability of food in the years to come.

Is this what Paul is talking about? If so it is remarkably ambiguous at best. Is this the freedom he thought God has in mind?

Elijah might be able to help us. After all, other than Moses, he is one of the "biggest" characters in the Hebrew scriptures. He took on royalty and governments, religion,  corruption and greed. He roars though the wilderness healing and resurrecting, destroying false prophets, fleeing from the wrath of the queen only to return to his call to serve God and restore Israel to faithfulness. Elijah is larger than life. He experiences fear. He loses heart. He knows despair. He is real. And he towers over the pages of time; a passionate, compassionate, fierce, loyal, and truth filled servant of the L ord. Awe-inspiring.  Awe-some. And free.

Which makes him intimidating too.

And that might be all there is to it were it not for this strange little story we have today about Elijah and his companion, his student prophet, Elisha. For here we have the great and seemingly unattainable drive and character of Elijah and the much lesser known and apparently more ordinary Elisha. But, undaunted,  Elisha persists in attaching himself to Elijah at the hip. "Go away" says Elijah, "I have work to do." "No," says Elisha, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." "Go away" says Elijah, "I have work to do." "No," says Elisha, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

It reminds us of Ruth's loyalty to Naomi, her mother-in-law. When Naomi, having nothing to offer, tells Ruth to return to her homeland rather than face a life of poverty, Ruth declares,  ‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people,  and your God my God. ¹Where you die, I will die-there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!'

What binds Ruth to Naomi and Elisha to Elijah is loyalty of extreme love. And it that kind of love that sets free; disinterested love, love given freely with no restrictions, agenda-less love, love that can be trusted.

Elijah, seeing that love, submits and taking his cloak he strikes the waters of the River Jordan which draw back so they may cross "with unmoistened foot." (There's another couple of sermons here just in case you're interested. Jordan. Water dividing?)  Elijah judges Elisha is ready for the big questions, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you."

And Elisha, with incredible audacity asks, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." Now just think about that for a minute. The student wants to be like his master. Good. But this student wants to twice his master. To be free as Elijah is free and more so! Even Elijah sounds a little taken aback. , "You have asked a hard thing;" he says, "yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not."

Watch that shift in the story. Elisha's freedom, his spirit, Elisha's future, does not depend on Elijah. It is not Elijah who is in charge of the universe. It is God.

The  God Elijah has loved more than his own life; the God who has set him free. The God who takes Elijah to God's own self in heaven even as Elisha watches. And all that is left behind is a garment, a cloak, lying on the ground. It is Elijah's cloak. And he picks up the mantle of Elijah, and strikes the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" And God shows up and the water parts and Elisha crosses over filled with spirit, free to do the work of the Lord.

And there we have it; the freedom of which Paul speaks. Not the freedom to do anything we want to meet our own ends. But free to love God, free to love our neighbor that in that loving we become free ourselves. Free to discover the true breadth of life by the apparently paradoxical commitment to serve others. To genuinely believe that   love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control work.   Or, as Paul puts it so much more eloquently, "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters."

Not everyone responds with a yes. Jesus, in today's gospel, is beginning his final journey towards his destiny in Jerusalem. Others accompany him.

"Someone said to him (Jesus), "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.""

Many times we are willing to trade freedom for passing securities in the hope they will substitute for the real thing. Many times we are willing to trade that freedom for things that seem to make life easier. Many times we are tempted to make choices that feel right for us without consideration of the effects of those choices on our fellow human beings or even our planet.

Today we live in a time where we can see the effects of our behavior and choices not only in our own community, city, and country but worldwide as economies, the environment, and resources are stretched to the limit. The choice for freedom is can no longer be a matter of idle speculation, of "tomorrow", or by and by. We can see the outcome of our choices far and wide.

"You were called to freedom." Paul reminds us, "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence." It is time to set our face to Jerusalem. It is time to exercise our freedom.

"Live by the Spirit" - live as Elijah lived, as Elisha, Ruth, Moses, Mary, Jesus lived. Learn to be free.

 Amen.